Ms. codex.

In Latin.

Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.

(MS f Med. 3) 56 leaves, paper and parchment ; 298 x 215 (230 x 145) mm.

(MS f Med. 4) 88 leaves, paper and parchment ; 302 x 212 (234 x 142) mm, in box to 34 cm.

Secundo folio: [MS f Med. 3]: ...a maiori denominatur; [MS f Med. 4]: ...planus in principius

Collation: Paper, with watermark: bull's head with five-petal flower above, cross below (similar to Briquet 14777). Parchment innermost bifolia of each quire and the outermost of the first quire of MS f Med. 3 (eleven leaves of MS f Med. 3 and fourteen leaves of MS f Med. 4). Two volumes of an originally larger volume or multi-volume set. MS f Med. 3: fol. ii + 56 + ii ; MS f Med. 4: fol. i + 88 + ii ; MS f Med. 3: 1¹²⁺¹ (fol. 7 tipped-in singleton), 2-4¹² , 5¹²⁻⁵ (lacking final five leaves; these are now the first five singleton leaves of Houghton MS Lat. 231, which follows MS f Med. 3 in series); MS f Med. 4: 1-2¹⁴, 3-7¹². Some signatures extant, "primus," 2us," etc., lower center, final verso of the quire. Catchwords mostly trimmed, some partially visible on final versos. Foliated in modern arabic pencil.

Layout: Two columns, 47 lines. Ruled by creasing or in blind.

Decoration: 1-to-2 line enlarged red or blue initials throughout

Script: Written in a gothic cursive in black ink with red underlining of biblical citations, red rubrics.

Decoration: 1-to-2 line enlarged red or blue initials throughout.

Binding: 19th-century green marbled paper over pasteboard, black morocco spine, gilt-stamped, marbled endpapers, lower edge of MS f Med. 4 striped, leather thumb tabs on outer edges of text block.

Origin: Written in "Paradisus" Abbey, Germany (possibly Duren), by "John, Abbot at Paradiso," in 1471

Provenance: From abbey identified by de Ricci as Paradies, near Posen, or Paradies, near Soest. As the former is in modern-day Poland and the latter was a nunnery, neither of these is a likely place of origin for this manuscript, written in a German region in a community of men. Of the abbeys bearing some version of the name "Paradisus" listed in Cottineau's Repertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieures, only the community of Williamites in Duren, in the North Rhine region, was a community of men in a Germanic region (Cottineau, I:2187); this seems the most likely point of origin. See colophon, MS f Med. 3, fol. 46: "Scripta per R. magistrum Johannem Abbatem in paradiso" and MS f Med. 4, fol. 85: "...anno gracie 1471...". Two parts of the original volume (or volumes) are now Harvard University, Houghton Library MS Lat. 231 (which contains the Book of Wisdom and is consecutive with MS f Med. 3) and Philadelphia, Free Library, Lewis E 43 (Pauline Epistles), both of which preserve parts of the Postilla written by the same hand on the same paper stock and preserved in the same later binding

Purchased from the sale of Joachim Guerrini's library on Oct. 8 1878 (Leonard & Co., Boston, lot no. 1154) with the Pierce Fund (Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts 42794 and 197847)

Call number: MS f Med. 3-4

Former call number: BPL Q.450.1 and Q.450.2

1. [MS f Med. 3]: fol. 1-32: Proverbs.

2. [MS f Med. 3]: fol. 32v-46: Ecclesiastes.

3. [MS f Med. 3]: fol. 46v-56v: Song of Songs.

4. [MS f Med. 4]: fol. 1-85: Minor prophets.

5. [MS f Med. 4]: fol. 85v-88: blank.

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